A Southern Expatriate: Adventures in Kyoto (Day 2)

I don't think I have ever looked better

Toji-Temple

He/She loves Mister Donut

Awesome mirror

Day two in Kyoto I woke up and took a shower and experienced the coolest thing ever. The mirror in the shower, no matter how steamy the room gets, will still be clear of condensation in the middle of the mirror. I took a picture so you could see, yes that is me in a towel, but I made sure my six pack abs were not in the shot, sorry. We left the hotel and went to a doughnut place called Mister Donut. It started in America originally but was bought out by Dunkin' Donuts so that is why we don't have them in America anymore. What I thought was hilarious was the spokesperson for Mister Donut. Everywhere through out the store there are pictures of this big, fat cross-dresser staring you down to buy these donuts, and it worked. Another funky thing was that they don't serve you paper cups when you order a drink, it is a fast food chain that gives you glass cups and plates. I have noticed that smoking is a pretty popular thing here, more so than in the states. It is very common to go into a restaurant and smoking is allowed in the building. If smoking is not allowed, they will have a little room for people to go in and smoke. After Mister Donut, we headed to Kinkaku-ji, or the Golden Pavilion. It is a golden pavilion coated in pure gold leaf. It is one of the most photogenic temples in the world. The original building dates back to 1398 but in 1950 a 22 year old schizophrenic monk burned the temple to the ground. It was promptly reconstructed and is one of the most viewed tourist attractions in Japan. While we were there we got to ring this really big bell that is a bell for peace, after you pay to ring the bell they give you a little post card with the temple on it in during the winter time with snow. If you walk up this little path there is a tea house and a rock in the shape of a chair. I had no idea what the rock was because it was all in Japanese, but apparently it is a rock that

Kinkaku-ji Temple

upperclass people would sit on, no idea why they are sitting on rocks.

Glass cups at Mister Donut

Kinkaku in the winter and my lucky charm I got there

There is a picture of me and Riza sitting on it, you can't really see the rock, but trust me, it is there. When I was at the temple I bought a little lucky charm that is supposed to give me good health and a long life, I just bought it because it was orange and had the temple on it, but I'll take the health and long life too. While I was waiting in line to get my little charm, every single person just kept stepping in front of me in line and I couldn't speak Japanese to be like, "excuse me" so it took me a good ten minutes to finally shove my way up the the front. After that we headed to the Ryoanji Temple which is famous for its rock garden. It was originally a country house of the Tokudaiji clan, but was then acquired in 1450 by Hosokawa Katsumoto for use as a Zen training temple. It was destoryed by fire during the Onin War and was rebuilt in 1499, so still crazy old. It is weird to think that American was not even a thought when these places were built. This garden is unique because there are no trees to be seen; only fifteen rocks and white gravel. It is said that the garden was created around 1500 by a Zen monk, Tokuho Zenketsu. Another interesting thing about the garden is that no matter where you are standing, at least one rock will always be hidden from view. If you walk around the corner from the rock garden there is a little wash-basin made out of stone. This basin is called Tsukubai, and is the the wash-basin for the tea room. It has a unique inscription on it that says, "I learn only to be contented." It means, he who learns only to be contented is spiritually rich, while the one who does not learn to be contented is spiritually poor even if he is materially wealthy. This concept is important in the Zen spirit. It is said that the Tsukubai was contributed by Mitsukuni Mito, a feudal lord and the compiler of the great History of Japan known as "Dai-nippon-shi". So this water-basin is pretty cool, so I had to get a picture chillin by the basin, I had to make sure no one was coming around the corner

Water basin at Ryoanji Temple

Sitting on the rock chair thing at Kinkaku

because I feel like getting on the floor and taking a picture is frowned upon, but I did it anyway. I also had to upload another picture of a toilet. You have to squat over the toilets at the Ryoanji Temple because it is more sanitary, but I don't think I could do anything squatting like that, so if you ever go to the Ryoanji Temple, go to the bathroom before hand. Then we went to Toei Kyoto Studio Park, which is pretty much a smaller Japanese Disneyland. One of the first things we did there was we went to a illusion house type thing. It was filled with all these weird things that play tricks on your vision, but what I liked the most about the illusion house was the Whitney Houston blaring over the speakers; it really added to the whole experience. The best thing at the park was the costume shop. You can either rent a costume and wear it around the park, or just get pictures in them. I didn't think I was ready to walk around in a Shogun outfit, so I opted for the photos. As you can tell from the huge picture at the top, I think it was a success. Everyone loved to laugh at me when they walked by and saw me in the outfit, I don't think it really works for white people, but Riza looks good! I am just happy that I got to have swords in the picture, that was my main request. We also got to watch a ninja show with ninjas running around and doing all these flips and stuff. I am sure the show was really serious but I couldn't help but laugh. I have no idea what they are saying and when they yell in their ninja voices it is really funny to me, and because no one else was laughing, it made me laugh even more. I just make up my own stories to the show and it is just as good, probably better. We were walking down this strip of Japanese houses in the park that is apparently a replica of a street that prostitues would work on, and we saw this little girl dressed up in a Kimono, hopefully she wasn't try to imitate the prostitutes, but she was so cute, so me and Riza had to get a picture with her. She is rockin it with the Kimono and peace sign. When we were leaving the park, there was a cone in the way of the car, so we had to go ask someone to move it and Riza was talking about it to me and she called in a "corn", so I had to take a picture of the "corn" for you guys. Speaking of cones, I have another picture of some cones with a road block made out of bamboo, I thought it looked funny so I took a picture. Our last temple in Kyoto was the Toji-Temple, which is famous for the five-storied Pagoda. It is the highest pagoda in Japan, measuring 187 feet. It was built in 826 and burnt down four times after being struck by lightening, apparently everything burns down in Japan. The present building was built by the third Tokugawa Shogun, Iemitsu in 1644. We got to go inside the first floor of the pagoda, which usually isn't open, so that was cool. You couldn't take pictures inside so I took a picture of a picture they had there and uploaded it. Inside are placed the images of Four Buddhas and their followers, the eight great Bosatsu. There was a big pond outside that had all of these Koi fish in it, so I finally got to get my picture of some Koi fish! There were these other two buildings called Kon-do and Ko-do. Inside were these huge statues of Buddha, unfortunately you couldn't take pictures in their either, so I had to take pictures of pictures again. The pictures only give you a little hint as to how amazing it was inside. When we were inside one of the buildings we heard these drums and what

Chilling with the water basin at Ryoanji

Monks parading at Toji-Temple

An entrance into Toji-Temple and the wooden thing you aren't supposed to step on......whoops

sounded like some kind of horn. We went outside and there were these monks walking in a line around the gates of the Temple, not really sure why they were doing it, but it was pretty cool. If you look at the center picture above, that is the entrance to the Toji-Temple. Apparently you are not supposed to step on that wooden step, but I didn't know that till we got to this temple, so I am pretty sure I stepped on them at every other temple we went to, so now I probably have so Buddhist curse, so that is good. Then we went to go visit Riza's brother again at his school, which is right next to the Toji-Temple. When we were leaving it was dark and the pagoda was all lit up and looked really cool, so I took a picture so everyone in the whole world can enjoy it, so you're welcome. I saw another building when we were leaving that stood out to me, it was a big church with a lit up cross at the top. In the South you see a church on every block, but it is really weird seeing them in Japan right next to a Buddhist temple. Christianity it not a big religion here, but people who are not Christian have adopted some of the Christian traditions like Christmas, Valentines day, and Western Weddings. So like I did yesterday, I am going to end with a phrase instead of a word so here it is, genki 元気. Which is a way to say, "how are you?" And what was really weird to me, if you are okay, you can answer back by saying, genki. So it is kind of like us being like, "how are you?" and someone replying with, "how are you." Doesn't really make sense to me, but oh well.